UPDATE 5-Potash Corp keeps sights on buying K+S, vows to protect jobs

Reuters Staff

3 Min Read

(Adds K+S comment, CEO comment on operating costs)

By Shubhankar Chakravorty and Rod Nickel

July 30 (Reuters) - Canada’s Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc remains focused on acquiring German salt and fertilizer company K+S, the company said on Thursday, and is prepared to make “binding commitments” to maintain jobs and keep mines running to get a deal.

If it acquires K+S, Potash Corp, the world’s biggest fertilizer producer, would finish building K+S’s Saskatchewan mine and sell its potash offshore through Canpotex, Chief Executive Jochen Tilk said during a conference call. Canpotex is a sales partnership with Mosaic Co and Agrium Inc .

“This combination would create a more efficient, integrated company able to prosper in an increasingly competitive global marketplace with expanding global capacity,” Tilk said.

Potash Corp’s potash production was flat at 2.5 million tonnes, while the average realized price rose 4 percent to $273 per tonne.

The company narrowed its 2015 potash sales forecast to 9.3 million to 9.6 million tonnes from 9.2 million to 9.7 million. (Reporting by Shubhankar Chakravorty in Bengaluru and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; Editing by Maju Samuel, Alden Bentley and Peter Galloway)